Rudolf Steiner

Author: Gary Lachman
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101154071
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
The first truly popular biography of the influential twentieth-century mystic and educator who-while widely known for founding the Waldorf schools and other educational and humanitarian movements-remains a mystery to many who benefit from his ideas. People everywhere have heard of Waldorf schools, Biodynamic farming, Camphill Villages, and other innovations of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Indeed, Steiner—as an architect, artist, teacher, and agriculturalist—ranks among the most creative and prolific figures of the early twentieth century, pioneering work in alternative education, holistic health, and environmental research. While his accomplishments are felt all over the world, few people understand this unusual figure. Steiner's own writings and lectures fill several bookcases, intimidating those who would like to know more. Works on Steiner are often dense and "insider" in tone, further deterring the curious. No popular biography, written by a sympathetic but critical outsider, has been available. Gary Lachman's Rudolf Steiner provides this missing introduction. Along with telling Steiner's story and placing Steiner in his historical context, Lachman's book presents Steiner's key ideas in a readable, accessible manner. In particular, Lachman considers the spread of Steiner's most popular projects, which include Waldorf schools-one of the leading forms of alternative education-and Biodynamic farming-a popular precursor to organic farming. He also traces Steiner's beginnings as a young intellectual in the ferment of fin de siécle culture, to his rise as a thought leader within the influential occult movement of Theosophy, to the founding of his own metaphysical teaching called Anthroposophy. Finally, the book illustrates how Steiner's methods are put into practice today, and relates Steiner's insights into cosmology to the work of current thinkers. Rudolf Steiner is a full-bodied portrait of one of the most original philosophical and spiritual luminaries of the last two centuries, and gives those interested in the history of ideas the opportunity to discover one of the most underappreciated figures of the twentieth century.

The New Essential Steiner

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: SteinerBooks
ISBN: 1584204788
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Book Description
12 lectures, Hamburg, May 5-31, 1908 (CW 103) During Pentecost 1908--seven years after he had given the world his book Christianity As Mystical Fact and the first intimation of the consequences of his Christ experience--Rudolf Steiner began his great work of renewing humanity's understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha and its meaning for human and earthly evolution. Accordingly, he turned to the deepest, most spiritual of the Gospels--that of the initiate St. John. In this lecture course, readers will find that the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Divine Word, or Logos, reveals the mission of the Earth: Love. We learn of the mysteries behind Lazarus' resurrection, the "I AM" sayings, and the seven degrees of initiation. We come to understand that the Gospel of St. John is a continuing spiritual presence--to be recalled, meditated, and permeated with one's own life. In doing so, we realized that our purpose--and that of all humankind--is to become the Virgin Sophia, a receptical for the Holy Spirit. All of Steiner's work, as Marie Steiner writes in her introduction, was "to pave the way to Christ." Indeed, at the conclusion of these lectures, Rudolf Steiner said: It will come to be understood that Christianity is only beginning its influence and will fulfill its real mission only when it is understood in its true, spiritual form.... The more these lectures are understood in this sense, the better they will be understood as they were intended. This volume is essential if one is to truly understand Rudolf Steiner's understanding of esoteric Christianity and its place in the world today and in the future. This volume is a translation of Das Johannes-Evangelium (GA 103).

Start Now!

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: SteinerBooks
ISBN: 9780880105262
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Start Now! offers an extensive and representative sample of Steiner's spiritual instructions and meditative practices, including meditation instructions; mantric verses; daily, weekly and monthly practices for the development of soul qualities; karmic exercises and meditations for working with the dead, the angelic hierarchies and our guardian angel.

Mani & Rudolf Steiner

Author: Christine Gruwez
Publisher: SteinerBooks
ISBN: 1621481093
Category : Anthroposophy
Languages : en
Pages : 123

Book Description
For many centuries, the teaching of Mani was hidden behind the distorted picture that had been created by the adversaries of Manichaeism in East and West. In the course of the twentieth century, new light was shed on Manichaeism by the discovery of several Manichaean scriptures. These have shown that Manichaeism was a true, distinct world religion that, in the question of good and evil, for instance, offers insights that complement and deepen Christianity. Also in the twentieth century, Rudolf Steiner brought Anthroposophy, Spiritual Science, which is a continuation of a stream of esoteric Christianity that has run through human history ever since the resurrection of Christ. Anthroposophy is centered on a new, deepened idea of Christianity that, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner, is so great and all-encompassing that it can be understood in its full depth only gradually. In this book, Christine Gruwez explores the essence of Mani’s revelation and then shows what Rudolf Steiner has communicated regarding Mani and his teaching. This generates an image of two spiritual streams that, each from its own beginning, are moving toward a future when a Christianity of the deed shall become reality.

Disease, Karma and Healing

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 1855843838
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
Today, illness is almost universally regarded as either a nuisance or a grave misfortune. In contrast to this conventional thinking, Rudolf Steiner places the suffering caused by disease in a broad vista that includes an understanding of karma and personal metamorphosis. Illness comes to expression in the physical body, but mostly does not originate in it, says Steiner, and thus a key part of the physician’s work involves gaining insight into the whole nature of an individual – his essential core being. From this perspective, illness offers us the opportunity for deeper healing. Throughout this volume Rudolf Steiner draws our attention to the greater scope of the smallest phenomena – even a seemingly insignificant headache. He casts vivid light on things we normally take for granted, such as the human capacity to laugh or cry, and in the process broadens our vision of human existence. The apparently mundane human experiences of forgetting and remembering are intrinsic to our humanity, for example, and have unsuspected moral and spiritual dimensions. Steiner’s insights are never merely ‘lofty’ or nebulously ‘spiritual’ but time and again connect with the minutest realities of everyday life. In these 18 lectures, delivered on a weekly basis as part of an ongoing course covering ‘the whole field of spiritual science’, Steiner elaborates in detail on the diverse interplay of the human being’s constituting aspects (physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego or ‘I’) in relation to rhythmic processes, developing consciousness, the history of human evolution, and our connection with the cosmos. Within this broad canvas, some of his themes acquire a very distinctive focus – such as vivid accounts of the ‘intimate history’ of Christianity, ‘creating out of nothing’, the interior of the earth, and health and illness. Other topics include: the nature of pain, suffering, pleasure and bliss; the four human group souls of lion, bull, eagle and man; the significance of the Ten Commandments; the nature of original sin; the deed of Christ and the adversary powers of Lucifer, Ahriman and the Asuras; evolution and involution; the Atlantean period – and even Friedrich Nietzsche’s madness!

What is Anthroposophy?

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: SteinerBooks
ISBN: 9780880105064
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 100

Book Description
3 selected lectures by Rudolf Steiner This is one of those books that can change your life. Radical, thought-provoking, and indeed mind-boggling, it leads to a completely new way of looking at what it means to be human--a spiritual being in a universe that itself is not just physical, but psychic and spiritual as well. These three previously untranslated lectures are a masterly introduction to what Rudolf Steiner means by "Anthroposophy." They explain why Steiner describes this path--which means literally "the wisdom of the human being"--as one that "unites what is spiritual in the human being with what is spiritual in the universe." Steiner begins by describing what happens when we die. He shows the relationship between our physical life on Earth and the etheric, astral, and spiritual life of the cosmos. He also explains how physical lives are completely interwoven with cosmic existence, and how the "miss-ing links" in evolution are spiritual in nature. Steiner then demonstrates what he calls the "dilettantism" and "soullessness" of mainstream psychology. He points out that, since the second half of the nineteenth century, the idea of the soul has been lost and that, consequently, understanding of our inner lives is without a sure foundation. A very different view emerges, however, from a truly spiritual perspective. In the third lec-ture, Steiner takes as his guide our three states of being--waking, dreaming, and sleeping. He describes in detail what happens in these three states and how each is bound up with our lives as physical, psychic, and spiritual beings. With the profound insights in this book, the world becomes a much larger, richer, and more exciting place to live.

From the Course of My Life

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 1855843765
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Book Description
Your favorite occupation? Pondering and musing. Your idea of happiness? Pondering and musing. Your most extreme aversion? Pedantry and a sense of order. Of what are you afraid? Punctuality. These quotations are from a questionnaire filled in by a young man in his late twenties. That person, Rudolf Steiner, would later initiate Spiritual Science, or Anthroposophy, and the many practical disciplines that arose from it. Eventually, he would write his Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of My Life, although its completion would be interrupted by his unexpected death. This book is an essential complement to Steiner's unfinished Autobiography. It gathers a wealth of personal testimonies--including lectures, r sum s, notebook entries, a questionnaire, as well as biographical notes written for douard Schur --much of which has not been previously published in English. The various materials, together with rare photographs, have been expertly collated and introduced by Walter Kugler. See also the comprehensive biography by Christoph Lindenberg, Rudolf Steiner: A Biography.

Nutrition

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 1855842823
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
Our instinctive knowledge of which foods are helpful and which are harmful appears increasingly to be fading. We are bombarded with advice, information and prescriptions as to what we should eat and drink, but the issues surrounding nutrition - questions of health, diet, taste, even ecology and sustainability - remain largely unresolved.Unlike most commentators on this subject, Rudolf Steiner tackles the theme of nutrition in a refreshingly open way. At no point does he try to tell us what we should or should not be putting into our bodies - whether with regard to an omnivorous or vegetarian diet, smoking, drinking alcohol, and so on. The job of the scientist, he says, is to explain how things act and what effect they have; what people do with that information is up to them. However, he emphasizes that our diet not only determines our physical wellbeing, but can also promote or hinder our inner spiritual development.In this carefully collated anthology, with an introduction, commentary and notes by Christian von Arnim, Rudolf Steiner considers nutrition in the light of his spiritual-scientific research. He explains the impact of raw food, vegetarian and meat diets, the effects of protein, fats, carbohydrates and salts, individual foodstuffs such as potatoes, beetroots and radishes, as well as the impact of alcohol and nicotine. His insights are vital to anybody with a serious interest in health, diet and spiritual development.

Rosicrucian Wisdom

Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 1855842831
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
The work of Rudolf Steiner is unique in the way it combines esoteric teaching with practical suggestions for the development of social life. Indeed, Steiner is best known today for the application of his ideas in areas such as education, medicine and agriculture. But none of this could have developed without the coherent and profound body of spiritual knowledge which stands at the very core of Steiner's work. In Rosicrucian Wisdom - one of his most complete introductions to modern spirituality - Steiner speaks out of the stream of Rosicrucian teaching. But rather than borrowing old ideas from historical tradition, Steiner presents a wholly new contribution arising from the results of his own experiential research. He talks of the Rosicrucian path as being appropriate for the modern spiritual seeker, but warns that Rosicrucian teaching should not be taken as abstract theory. Rather than remaining in the head or even the heart, spiritual ideas should reach into daily action, transforming all aspects of life. Steiner goes on to describe many facets of spiritual truth, including the law of destiny, the fact of life after death, ways of developing spiritual vision, humanity's past and future evolution, and much more.

Rudolf Steiner in Britain

Author: Crispian Villeneuve
Publisher: Temple Lodge Publishing
ISBN: 1906999031
Category : Anthroposophists
Languages : en
Pages : 1265

Book Description
Rudolf Steiner spent some five months of his life in Britain, visiting there ten times between 1902 and 1924. With the exception of German-speaking countries, the longest time Steiner spent abroad was in Britain, a place he clearly considered central to his work.In this extraordinary, thorough study of more than 1,200 pages and dozens of illustrations, Crispian Villeneuve documents those important visits, reproducing letters, articles, records and other archival material, much of it published for the first time. He also studies the interconnected theme of the life and work of D.N. Dunlop, Rudolf Steiner's closest British colleague.